Customer Reviews

Christ the King-Lord of History: A Catholic World History from Ancient to Modern Times

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4 star:		(2)
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2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

As a traditionalist Catholic and a professional historian, I cannot recommend this book whole heartedly.
This book is a passable Catholic introduction to world history. Maybe I should say, a Catholic tweak on world history. By trying to Catholicize history, the author provides a fresh look but makes no contribution and actually distorts many issues.
There are major advantages to this book. It gives a point of view not normally found in other texts. It covers history in a readable style. It is primarily a survey book.
There are major cons. The author ignores the contributions of major civilizations or glosses oevr them. The author also attributes ideas to time periods where they did not enter into play. Take, for example, the idea of distributism.
I would recommend this book as additional reading but not as the main textbook in schools or hoemschool history programs.

"Christ the King,Lord of History" has a few positive aspects (it's the seminal text for many Catholic homeschoolers). It doesn't secularize history. It acknowledges the Catholic contribution to world history. It doesn't have the political correctness of public school history textbooks- but,like them,it is biased,and the bias leads inevitably to inaccuracies.

"Christ the King,Lord of History" sanitizes and sugar-coats abuses Catholics have engaged in throughout history. Carroll rationalizes the restrictions placed on Jews after Christianity was made the official religion of the Roman Empire. According to her reasoning, Jews' freedom of movement (esp. during Holy Week&Easter)&freedom of religion presented a tremendous danger to Christians. Jewish men HAD to wear special clothing to protect the virtue of Christian women. Carroll rationalizes the oppression of the Roma (Gypsies),saying they basically deserved it,since they're thieves and kidnappers anyhow. So,when Carroll condemns the second-class citizen treatment of Jews in Islamic countries,it's a case of the pot calling the kettle black. She rationalizes the oppression of heretics and non-Catholics,saying it was to protect the Faith. In her view,it's okay to execute heretics,because it's all about saving souls. So much for an open mind... If her faith is so strong,why does she think it was great that people who think differently were once killed for their ideas? It sounds like Orwellian thoughtcrimes to me.

"Christ the King,Lord of History" gets outrageous when Carroll condemns Martin Luther King,Jr and Nelson Mandela. Carroll views the movement for de-segregation as a vast Communist conspiracy to cause chaos in the US and the battle against apartheid as a Communist conspiracy to destroy South Africa. Yet Carroll has the audacity to say racism is wrong. Huh? Never mind Martin Luther King praised natural law&was a Christian minister.

When it comes to WWII,Carroll praises Spanish dictator Francisco Franco as a great Catholic. Never mind the fact he was a fascist,and that non-Catholics/non-Christians couldn't engage in public worship (sounds a lot like Saudi Arabia,where non-Muslims can't worship publicly)

"Christ the King,Lord of History" is a meta-narrative,full of propaganda. It sugarcoats and sanitized oppression,further promoting the view that history is written by the winners&those who have the power. Carroll's ideology can be summed up as- might makes right,and power is everything. In a sense,her book reads like a mirror-image of Marxist histories,and just as accurate (NOT!) as the history textbooks in the former Soviet Union. Carroll's ideal world is reminiscent of "1984" (she does praise Joe McCarthy's red-baiting),except it's Big Church,not Big Brother. What's tragic is that this book would further fuel anti-Catholicism&give militant atheists like Philip Pullman more reasons for what they believe. Her worship of power is insulting to Jesus,who embraced the Cross&taught love for all. What would Jesus do? He wouldn't oppress.

This book is an excellent text for High School World History. My 15 year old won't tell you that this is his favorite book, but he did read his assignments without grumping (most days) and retained most of what he read. My neoPagan brother-in-law skimmed the book and declared it a fairly complete, if somewhat biased text. The author explains bias -- and her bias -- in her preface. Her "bias" is pretty obvious from the title of the text. We'll be using her _Christ and the Americas_ as a basis for our study of American History this year.

It was only after buying the book that I noticed on the back cover that it was a mostly Western European history. Hardly any mention was made of Asia, the largest continent in the world. Many events occurred there that had far reaching influence on the rest of the world. Yes, this book is very biased and not one I would use if I really wanted to know about the whole world. The author is a talented writer in the sense that it's a book you feel compelled to keep reading till the end.

As a traditionalist Catholic and a professional historian, I cannot recommend this book whole heartedly.
This book is a passable Catholic introduction to world history. Maybe I should say, a Catholic tweak on world history. By trying to Catholicize history, the author provides a fresh look but makes no contribution and actually distorts many issues.
There are major advantages to this book. It gives a point of view not normally found in other texts. It covers history in a readable style. It is primarily a survey book.
There are major cons. The author ignores the contributions of major civilizations or glosses oevr them. The author also attributes ideas to time periods where they did not enter into play. Take, for example, the idea of distributism.
I would recommend this book as additional reading but not as the main textbook in schools or homeschool history programs. Unfortunately, many homeschool parents fall into the trap that, because Mrs. Carroll has been involved in the Catholic homeschool and educational movements, her work is sacrosanct. It is useful but one should not pin the children's historical competency on this book alone.

If you, like most people, learned history as written by unChristian or even anti-Catholic people, this book will blow your mind! All history is written with certain assumptions, whether or not they are actually voiced in the text. Mrs. Carroll turns what most of us take for granted as history and turns it upside down--because now it is viewed through the eyes of Catholicism instead of through the eyes of the liberal media. Read it and be proud of your Catholic heritage!

This book is a very good source of world history, and it offers a lot of facts that your average history book won't include. It is very Catholic opinionated, and I wouln't recemend it to anyone who is not Catholic. There is almost no American history in it until the first world war, and the American Revolution and Civil War is summed up in three sentances. If you really want a good American history book, get a diferent one, but it is a good source for Catholic veiws on world history.

When teaching a child history today the hot button issue is 'tweaking' of historical facts to justify or condemn certain events and people.Text books are now written to glorify FDR and his policies ,or glorify Reagan and his polices...depending on which flavour of capitalism one prefers. To further a agenda today it is necessary to rearrange events in the past. The Soviets performed this quite well re-writing events to glorify them selves and condemn any who were their enemy...and rearranging them back when the enemy became their friend again.The Japanese write their history books to down play the fact that they attacked Hawaii unprovoked,and the US writes history books to down play the fact that they invaded Vietnam unprovoked.

So even given that background of recent 'history',Anne Carroll's "Christ the King-Lord of History" still stands out as biased,one sided,fantasy served up to faithful Catholics as truth. Carroll provides a basic outline of world history(European history mostly) from Christ to modern times but as H.G. Wells before her writes in her own details to further a agenda. There are numerous what can only be called white washes of Catholics and events to whom there should be no defense. Many examples are given but I shall focus on just a few: James the 2nd of England. Carroll portrays him as a heroic,faithful man of character and God,unjustly being picked on due to his faith by the mean Anglicans.She ponders out loud towards the end of his story asking why did he run and hide when William of Orange came? Why didn't he fight for the Church and his throne...maybe it was due to his incessant whoring and numerous affairs with multiple mistresses? He was busy... Or how about the fanatical praise of Joe McCarthy and his witch hunts?The defense of Franco? The Crusades? And lets not fail to mention the free mason chapter where she actually makes up a make believe conversation of the Masonic leaders laughing and cackling to them selves how they will subvert the church with short dresses and other dastardly acts.

Now those are but a few examples.If any reviewer were to write down all of her half truths and distortions they would have to xerox the entire book from beginning to end and post it here. It can be summed up as such: A guide to history praising everyone and every thing Catholic despite historical or ethical evidence or doctrine.If they are baptized,they get a green light in Mrs Carroll's book. No exceptions. I was given this book in a home school course many years ago and even at the young age of 15 ,was able to see through the terrible writing and distortions she has put in paper and defamed as 'Catholic history'. Catholic history is History. From Pentecost to today the Holy Church is parallel with European and American history. The greatest works of literature were written or preserved by monks through out the ages; Augustine and Aquinas some of the greatest philosophers in history;Gregory the Great changed time,music,the western culture;Ignatius Loyola and Francis of Assisi changed the face of evangelicalism throughout the globe,their teachings effecting the course of billions throughout the Earth ;Justin Martyr a defender of the faith and professor ,championing the Church even til the time of his execution; Thomas More who loved the faith so much he would not even sign his name on a piece of paper if it meant defaming Christ;Mother Hildegard of Bingen a female Renaissance man 400 years before the Renaissance;G.K.Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc men of letters and fighters of social justice and equality over those that seek to dominate...in short the Holy Church of Rome is not wanting for heroes and examples to teach children. We need not a half baked,American friendly,distortion to be served up to the next generation of kids.

This book is dangerous.Not because she makes such a great argument for her theories or facts...that can never be done;it is dangerous for any child that reads this and believes it on faith to be true for when she or he learns later that everything they read and believed in is a lie- they shall wonder..what else did I learn in school that was a lie? A Catholic child going to college has a up-hill battle defending their faith as it is - to have their faith shaken by having their world view of the church rocked when all of Carroll's lies come to light will lead only to a questioning of all their faith,and everything they learned of the Church from it's members to the sacraments.It should be questioned to what ideology does Mrs Carroll think she is furthering,for it most definately is not the Catholic faith.The facts are there many bad people who were Catholic;there are many more who stand up for the truth with courage and bravery despite all odds and obstacles...those are the ones children should learn of,not this filthy white washed propaganda.

This book gives an overview of world history with from a decidedly Catholic perspective. It is well written, clear and will keep most anyone's interest. I read it cover-to-cover in just a couple of days as did my husband.

This was truely an amazing book. When I went to high school I was forced to learn how evil the Catholic Crusades were, and how grusome the Inquisition was, but this book puts a whole new light on it! This woman really did her research. She's not someone who'd just put her own Catholic twist on things. Anne Carroll founded Seton School in VA, and Christendom College, and has spent 20 years teaching and has an M.A!
I usually found history incredibly boring, but Anne Carroll livens it up greatly. Not just focusing on American History,(How many times can we hear about Washington Crossing the Deleware?) she covers from roughly 3000 BC, to the end of WWII. While in school, we'd breeze by the Middle Ages within a month and focus on things I've already heard about, but Anne goes further into detail with the Kings and Queens of those times. And instead of just listing a bunch of boring facts, she tells humorous stories about most of the people she introduces.
But she doesn't sugar-coat everything. While putting a Catholic viewpoint on it, she doesn't deny that Catholics made mistakes in the Crusades, but she informs us as to exactly what they DID do, instead of getting the blown out of proportion explanations we sometimes get.
In conclusion, Anne made History what it should be, FUN! (and true. We sometimes have anti-catholic bias history books that distort the truth. I'm not saying all are like that, but I've seen some. So if you're a die-hard Catholic, have a good read!) Half of learning is enjoying what's being taught. It really is a worthwhile book!